2008 You Pick ‘em Series – “What
the Bible Says About…God & Technology?”
Genesis 11:1-9
Sermon preached at Curwensville Presbyterian Church – May 4, 2008
Prayer Introduction: This year’s sermons are by your request – “You Pick ‘Em.” So far we have looked at what God’s Word says about “Assurance of Salvation” – yes you can be sure, by growing in faith and holiness. We also looked at what God says, in His Word, about “Family Values” – and saw that God values the family, and so should we – especially in a sinful world that doesn’t value the family.
In the midst of this we’ve looked at the account of Moses and the Red Sea, along with celebrating Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.
This morning comes the request, “What does the Bible say about God & Technology.”
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Put one in the wheelhouse?” Baseball players know it means pitch a ball in the hitter’s power zone, where he really likes to hit it.
This request is right in my wheelhouse. I’m a technology buff. I’m also a God buff. My undergraduate degree was in sociology and my graduate degree was in theology. God and Technology is where I live.
So here’s what makes this a difficult sermon to preach. I could stand up here and talk for a long time about my thoughts on God and Technology – but that’s not a sermon; that would just be what I have to say. What we need to hear this morning is what God has to say; as he has revealed it in his infallible, inerrant Word – the Bible.
It has taken quite a bit of study and a whole lot of prayer to make sure that I wasn’t simply trying to find a passage of Scripture that said what I wanted it to say. Rather, we are going to go back near the beginning of time – and the first event we read about following Noah & The Flood.
We are going to
look at
READ
I. Bricks Instead of Stone
I would guess that many – if not most of us would agree with these words – “Modern inventions and the industrialism that has been built upon them have given us in many respects a new world to live in; we can no more remove ourselves from that world than we can escape from the atmosphere that we breathe.” But here is the interesting thing: these words were written in 1923 by J. Gresham Machen (in the book Christianity & Liberalism – p. 3).
We may be tempted to think of technology only in terms of “today’s” technology. But “modern inventions” have always been introduced [yesterday’s modern invention is today’s antique], and had their effect on society and man’s relationship with God. That is to say “technology” is not a new dilemma. As we see in the Tower of Babel.
In this passage we see that people proposed to use modern technology to build a tower. Using “man made” brick, rather than “God made” stone.
After all what is technology? Is it only computers and electronics? No. Technology is first and foremost an “ology” – the study of (or the words about) technique (or art, skill, craft). Strictly speaking we don’t “use technology” – we use inventions produced by technology.
This is important to understand, especially among those who have determined that they don’t like technology – meaning they don’t like the inventions of modern technology – meaning they don’t understand computers.
New technology always requires adjustment. And in our world it feels like technology is developing at an unprecedented rate – so that it is impossible to keep up. Indeed, it feels like everything has changed (but really nothing has changed).
In 1968 a person living in a major city had
Today there are literally hundreds of stations (from around the world) available.
In 1980 the Personal Computer did not exist (IBM introduced the first one in 1981).
In 1994 Netscape Navigator was invented and the Internet became readily accessible.
It was at this time (just 14 years ago) that e-mail really started to be used.
In 1982 the cell phone did not exist [remember pay phones].
In the 1990’s there were those portable cell phones that were huge (beast of a thing).
Today there are over 3.3 billion active cell phones on the planet of 6.6. billion people.
It is said that cell phones are the fastest infusion of technology in human history (faster than the polio vaccine). [With cell phones has also come text messaging]
Just 10 years ago people were using CD Walkmans.
On October 23, 2001 (less than 7 years ago) the first iPod was released. Here (in our church), we are still recording and copying worship services on audio tape – egads, might as well be using 8 track!
Because there are new developments of technology all the time, we lose sight of past developments of technology that have been absorbed into our lifestyle.
The same person that complains about how everything is computerized nowadays, does so while talking to someone on the telephone (which is computerized, you don’t have to ask an operator to get you a line).
Others would complain about e-mails, that no one takes the time to handwrite a letter anymore. Of course a hand-written letter includes the technological development of a pen (or pencil), paper, envelopes (with sticky seals [lick & stick or rip & stick – no wax seal]), and a post office to deliver it for you.
Oh, and by the way, you are using the technological development of writing.
Plato’s Phaedrus includes the legend of King Thamus and the god Theuth who invented many things, including writing. Thamus complained, “Those who acquire it (this skill of writing) will cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful; they will rely on writing to bring things to their remembrance by external signs instead of by their own internal resources. What you have discovered is a receipt for recollection, not for memory…And…your pupils will…be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant. And because they are filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom they will be a burden to society.”
According to King Thamus, learning to read and write will make you a burden to society.
All of this is to say that it is easy to demonize technology – especially as you get older – and forget the benefits of technology.
At the same time it is easy to glorify technology – especially when you are younger – and miss the inherent dangers of technology.
Some of the dangers are more obvious. The Internet has brought the proliferation of pornography. In many cases the technology is not the problem; it is the sinful use of the technology that is the problem.
In
God is not saying bricks are bad and stone is good. In fact, the Hebrew words for brick and stone are virtually identical. The same is true for tar and mortar – just as in English “tar” is in “mor-tar.”
The problem is not the technology of bricks; the sin is that advances in technology encourage independence.
II. The Original Sin of Independence
The issue starts with the heart, not the action. The action reveals the heart. And the heart behind building the Tower of Babel was a sinful heart pursuing independence: “We don’t need God. In fact, we can build a tower that will reach into the heavens.”
Is this not the original sin? The serpent said to Adam and Eve, “For God knows that when you eat of [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).
Satan laid the trap – and they fell for it.
Satan laid the trap again for the people in the plain of Shinar/Babel – and they fell for it.
Satan lays the trap today for people to view technology as a savior – and we fall for it.
We must be aware of our tendency to view technology as a savior.
“If only we could develop a 200 mpg car…”
“If only we could get more industry and tech jobs into the area…”
“If only we could find a cure for cancer…”
We cannot save our society through technological developments. Our society can only be saved – by Jesus Christ saving people.
But can’t we use technology for the gospel ministry of the church?
Consider removing the technology we are using right now. Turn off the organ. Turn off the electricity (no sound amplification). No hearing aids. No glasses. Change out of cotton and polyester outfits into wool.
Oh, and we need to get out of this room which was built and preserved with technology. Let’s go sit outside under a tree for shade.
Technology isn’t sinful; it can be used for sinful or saintly purpose. The people of Babel had sinful purpose in mind – independence from God: (verse 4) “Then they said, ‘Come let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’”
Notice the purpose they stated for building the tower – “so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the earth.”
And notice how this purpose stands opposed to God’s purpose – “to glorify his name over the face of the whole earth.”
Verse 8 concludes that God’s purpose – thankfully – wins out: “So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city” (and verse 9).
Why does God stop them? What would happen if “nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them”? They would determine that they were independent. The original sin – “we don’t need God…”
Of course, it isn’t really that nothing would be impossible – they still couldn’t save themselves, they still can’t make it rain to grow things, etc. – and notice that while they thought they could build a tower up into the heavens that verse 5 says that the Lord had to come down just to see the tower they were building. God is way higher than the people perceived – and is still greater than people perceive.
And so we are always more dependent than we realize; advances of technology simply give us the illusion of independence.
Instead of people, when they get older, moving in with family – to care for them – they wish to stay “independent.” And modern technology makes this possible.
Instant communication if there is trouble (the emergency button).
Automatic furnace and cooling – don’t need to build a fire, etc.
Meals are way easier to make.
Hire someone to fix things you cannot fix yourselves.
Is it God’s purpose for people to live by themselves (instead of with their families) in their old age? It means that, more and more, seniors feel like cast offs; but this comes by their own insistence on independence.
You cannot say by your action “I don’t need my family” but then say with words “why doesn’t my family do more for me?”
Is this to say that a furnace, microwave and emergency buttons are bad technological advancements? No! But there are implications to using that technology.
I can hear some say, “But my family has moved away – it isn’t right for them to move away.” But people have always been on the move. In this passage we see God’s purpose that people keep moving – to be scattered across the earth.
III. God and Technology
So what should we take from this passage – especially in terms of God and Technology? If you are a person who complains about kids and computers, then you should bear in mind how much you already depend on technology; and how it has caused you to embrace independence – perhaps sinfully so.
If you are a person who complains that people need to be more with it in using technology, then you should consider unplugging a little bit. Take a step back and consider why you are embracing technology so readily – and how it is affecting your relationship with the Lord.
Last summer I was with my family at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. Greenfield Village is kind of like Williamsburg, Virginia – an outdoor museum where they dress and use tools from hundreds of years ago; and sell hot dogs for lunch at hundreds of years from now prices.
Greenfield Village looks especially at the Industrial Age – with technological advancements in transportation (Detroit is the home of the automobile) – including the workshops of Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers. But also the innovations of artisans – pottery, glassmaking, and printing, etc.
I was in the woodworking shop and an Amish family was standing behind me, looking at these tools from the 1800’s. And the father said to his family, “Don’t laugh, these were tools that we were using until just recently.”
The Amish have not denied the use of technology. If you use the wheel, you are using technology. They just say we need to question how much technology affects our lives.
The Tower of Babel asks the same question.
Our fallen nature will view technology as a savior. Only through the true Savior – Jesus Christ – can technology be used for the sanctified purpose of spreading the gospel.
It was the technological advancement of the printing press that gave us printed Bibles – and as people read the Bible for themselves, and saw the unbiblical teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, that the Reformation begun.
Today, computers give us access to information by which we can study God’s Word and share God’s Word with others.
There is so much more that can be said; but you get the point. Do not demonize technology, but do not glorify it either. Instead, may we take the advances of technology as sovereign gifts from God to be used for his glory.
MAY THE TRUTH SET YOU FREE – AMEN!